One of liberalism’s big probs is equating non-liberalism with knuckle-dragging stupidity, irrationality, etc. Perhaps this was once mere propaganda, but we now have a generation that **believes** it - that no “bad person” can be smart and savvy. And they’re doing foreign policyhttps://twitter.com/stephen_wigmore/status/1496817540265394181 …
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Replying to @FormerlyFormer @MorlockP
Think this does good job of getting inside Russian/Putin’s mindset/worldviewhttps://niccolo.substack.com/p/fuck-it-russias-final-break-with?utm_source=url …
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Replying to @Chris_arnade @MorlockP
Read it. And yes. Most conflicts, with rare exceptions, are not simple “bad guy did a bad thing” scenarios. Even it what he’s currently doing is indeed bad. A reaction to NATO expansion/influence directly on Russia’s borders was nigh inevitable.
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I completely *get* thinking NATO should do what it did. Makes sense from a western POV. What I don’t get is being handwringing blindsided by Russia’s response. What did they think was gonna happen?
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Replying to @FormerlyFormer @MorlockP
Right. Foreign policy is knowing your opponents. To the degree you don’t know them, you have failed. That doesn’t mean Putin isn’t crazy. But that you should know that!
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Replying to @Chris_arnade @MorlockP
Yes. Also, having flaws does not negate every strength. It is entirely possible to be “crazy” and also a very good strategist.
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Every conflict we get into, the other guy is "a madman who knows no boundaries and does idiot things for idiot reasons". I tend to think that the kind of people who rise to the top of a knife-fighting king-of-the-mountain authoritarian system are not idiots, nor blind to tactics
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